Systems for dispensing beverages such as beer, soda, milkshakes and wine, commonly incorporate a beverage or flavor source container, connected through hoses or lines to a dispensing head. For simplicity, the beverage or flavor will be referred to as "beverage," although it will be understood that often, other ingredients, such as carbonated water, are mixed with the beverage before it is served. Ordinarily, the beverage is driven from the source container by pressurized air or carbon dioxide injected into the container. Often, the connecting hoses between the beverage source and the dispensing head are rather long, as when the beverage source containers are kept far away from the dispensing head. Due to the sticky nature of most beverages, and simply for sanitary reasons, it is necessary to clean and sanitize the elements of the beverage dispensing system frequently, including the hoses that connect the beverage source to the dispensing head, and the plumbing in the dispensing head itself.
It should be noted that concerning the art of food and beverage sanitation, the terms "cleansing" and "sanitizing" have distinct meanings. "Cleansing" means to remove particulate matter. "Sanitizing" means to kill microorganisms. In general, cleansing fluids are different from sanitizing fluids. In the case of beverage dispensing systems, however, it is common to provide a combined sanitizing/cleansing fluid. For simplicity, the term "sanitizing" fluid may be used to mean sanitizing/cleansing, in connection with beverage systems.
Several methods for sanitizing beverage delivery systems exist. The most primitive method is to connect the end of the hose that is normally connected to the beverage source, to a carbon dioxide source and to merely pump the carbon dioxide through, blowing out as much foreign matter as possible. This method does not, however, sanitize the system with any sanitizer.
Another method is to connect each individual hose to a series of tanks of fluid and force pressurized air, water (may be a cleanser), sanitizing fluid, water and again pressurized air through the system to sanitize the hoses and the dispensing head. With a many beverage system, such as a soft drink fountain in a fast food establishment, or in a bar, this process is time consuming and cumbersome. In practice, proprietors often do not sanitize the system as often as necessary. Thus, the syrup or beverage flavor amounts must be adjusted to accomodate for the decrease in flow resultant from contamination and blockage. Commonly, the system departs from the proper flavor balance. Even worse, the system may become unhealthful due to the presence of microorganisms.
Rather than connecting one drink hose at a time to each of the various fluids necessary for the sanitizing process, it is known to connect all of the beverage lines at once to a manifold that permits fluid communication among the drink lines and a common input port. To clean the system, each drink line is attached to an output port of the manifold. Then, the various fluids are connected sequentially to the input port. Each of the fluids, such as water and sanitizing fluid, are contained in pressurizeable containers and are driven through the manifold and hose system by carbon dioxide or some other pressurized gas. Initially, carbon dioxide will be connected to the input port. Thus, carbon dioxide will pass through the input port and into the main chamber of the manifold and then out through each of the drink lines to the fountain head. By opening each dispensing valve at the fountain head, the carbon dioxide drives out the remaining beverage in the line, thereby avoiding waste of the drink. After all of the beverage has been consumed or emptied, a water source may be connected to the manifold input. Sequentially, after the water source, a sanitizing fluid source may be connected, then again the water source, to remove any traces of the sanitizing fluid, and finally a carbon dioxide, or pressurized air source to dry out the hoses. After sanitizing in this manner, the individual drink hoses are reconnected to the drink containers and dispensing of drink may continue.
A method for utilizing a manifold system of this type has been described in Canadian Pat. No. 983,661. U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,536, also describes in general the need for frequent sanitizing of drink dispensing systems and a method for accomplishing this sanitizing involving a specialized nested container housing both water and sanitizing fluid.
It should be noted, that in all of the methods described above, the water and the sanitizing fluid are driven into the manifold, and out through the syrup lines to the dispensing head, by some type of pressure source. Thus, the water source must either be pressurized of its own, or the water be in a container capable of being pressurized by carbon dioxide or another gas. Similarly, the sanitizing fluid and the beverages must also be kept in pressurizeable containers. Pressurizeable containers such as beer kegs, are heavy and typically must be returned to a distributor for return of a deposit.
When the beverage is supplied in pressurized cans, as described above, a certain amount of waste necessarily occurs. This is because it is not possible to pump out all of the drink flavor in the cans with the pressure source. Thus, several ounces of drink flavor per can are wasted. When applied to the high volume of many restaurants and fast food establishments, several ounces wasted per can translates to thousands of dollars very quickly.
In order to overcome the waste and inconvenience of pressurized cans, the drink or flavor is also supplied in a different type of container. With this second type of beverage supply system, the beverage is supplied in collapsible plastic or mylar bags, having only one port. A cardboard box surrounds the bag, to support the bag. The port of the bag is connected to one end of a hose, the other end of which is connected to the fountain head. In order to draw the liquid from the bag to the fountain head, a pump is provided in-line in the hose. The pump draws the beverage from the bag and then pumps it on to the dispensing head. The bag collapes so that virtually no air is entrained in the bag. The pump is a relatively low capacity pump. It is capable of drawing fluid from two separate beverage bags. However, the fluid bags must contain the same type of drink, since the drink passes through the pump. Therefore, in general, each flavored drink requires a separate line and pump.
Because the bag has only one port, the fluid must be drawn from the bag by the pump, rather then being forced from the bag by a pressurized source. Because the bag has only one port, and this port must empty the entire bag, the drink bag must be provided with special fittings and valves. The fitting attached to the bag includes a tube that extends to the bottom of the bag. This tube enables emptying all of the drink flavor from the bag. This system will be referred to as the "bag and box" type system.
As has been explained above, the method of sanitizing according to the prior art, utilizing the manifold, requires that the normal beverage delivery system hoses connected to the beverage source, be attachable to the manifold. Thus to sanitize a bag and box type system, a manifold must be fitted with special fittings and valves capable of mating with those provided on the hoses of the bag and box type system. Further, according to the above described prior art, the various fluids (drink, water, sanitizing fluid, carbon dioxide) are driven through the manifold by pressurized gas. Due to the interposition of the pump in the line, it would be inefficient to drive the fluid through the bag-system lines using pressurized gas since the pump is available and capable of doing the work. The fluid may be drawn from a reservoir into the manifold, out through the special fitting, through the line, through the pump and up to the fountain head.
It is also desireable, to use up the remaining beverage in the lines, which may be substantial depending upon the length of the lines, without drawing any other type of fluid through the lines. To do this, in the case of the bag and box type of dispensing system, it is necessary to open the end of the line behind the beverage, to atmospheric pressure, to permit the pump to draw the beverage from the line and to the dispensing head.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system that will facilitate the cleaning of beverage dispensing systems designed to be used with sysetms including collapsible mylar or plastic beverage containing bags. It is a further object of the invention to provide a compact manifold device that will accomplish all of the necessary tasks of sanitizing a system, including the initial consumption of remaining beverage, sanitizing with sanitizing fluid, flushing with water, and drying with compressed gas. It is a further object of the invention to provide a system that permits using disposable containers containing premeasured volumes of sanitizing fluid and thereby eliminating waste.